Laufey (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

: ) or Nál is a figure in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern per ...

and the mother of

Loki Loki is a god in Norse mythology. According to some sources, Loki is the son of Fárbauti (a jötunn) and Laufey (mentioned as a goddess), and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. Loki is married to Sigyn and they have two sons, Narfi ...

. The latter is frequently mentioned by the matronymic ''Loki Laufeyjarson'' (

'Loki Laufey's son') in the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

'', rather than the expected traditional

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

Loki ''Fárbautason'' ('son of Fárbauti'), in a mythology where kinship is usually reckoned through male ancestry.

Name

The meaning of the

name ''Laufey'' is unclear, but it is generally taken to be related to ''lauf'' ('

leaves A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

foliage A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ...

'), perhaps attached to the

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...

-''ey'' (found in female

personal names A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is know ...

like ''Bjargey'', ''Þórey)'', or deriving from an hypothetical tree-goddess named ''*lauf-awiaz'' ('the leafy'). Since the name of her spouse '' Fárbauti'' means "dangerous hitter", a possible natural mythological interpretation has been proposed by some scholars, with lightning hitting the leaves, or needles of a tree to give rise to fire.

Attestations

In ''

Gylfaginning ''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; c. 20,000 words; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'' after the Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' deals with t ...

'' ('The Beguiling of

Gylfi In Norse mythology, Gylfi (Old Norse: ), ''Gylfe'', ''Gylvi'', or ''Gylve'' was the earliest recorded king in Scandinavia. He often uses the name Gangleri when appearing in disguise. The traditions on Gylfi deal with how he was tricked by the god ...

'),

High High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

introduces Loki as the son of Fárbauti, that "Laufey or Nál" is his mother, and that his brothers are

Býleistr Býleistr (Old Norse: ; also Byleist) is the brother of Loki in Norse mythology. Name The meaning of the Old Norse name is uncertain. The most popular propositions are compounds formed with the word ('storm'), either as ('storm-relieving'), ...

and Helblindi. Elsewhere in the same poem, Loki is referred to by the matronymic ''Laufeyjarson'' ('Laufey's son'). This occurs twice more in ''Gylfaginning'' and once in ''Skáldskaparmál''. '' Skaldskaparmal'' ('The Language of Poetry') mentions Loki as 'son of Fárbauti' or 'son of Laufey'. Laufey is listed among Ásynjar (goddesses) in one of the '' þulur'

an ancestry that perhaps led her son Loki to be "enumerated among the

Æsir The Æsir (Old Norse: ) are the gods of the principal pantheon in Norse religion. They include Odin, Frigg, Höðr, Thor, and Baldr. The second Norse pantheon is the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two pantheons wage war against each other, ...

", as

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

puts it in ''Gylfaginning''. ''Nál'' is mentioned twice in the

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been ...

as "Laufey or Nál"; once in ''Gylfaginning'' and once in ''Skáldskaparmál''. In the poem '' Sörla tháttr'', Nál and Laufey are portrayed as the same person: "She was both slender and weak, and for that reason she was called Nál eedle"''bæði mjó ok auðþreiflig'', ed. Carl Christian Rafn, ''Fornaldar Sögur Norðrlanda'' Volume 1, Copenhagen, 1829
p. 392
According to scholar

John Lindow John Frederick Lindow (born July 23, 1946) is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of Old Norse and Folklore at University of California, Berkeley. He is a well known authority on Old Norse religion and literature. Biography John ...

, however, "the late date of the text makes this piece of information suspect."

References

Footnotes

Citations

Bibliography